Larry reached in his saddle-bag for the small first-aid kit he had brought along. It had the emblem of the Medical HQ on it, and Kennard looked at it curiously as Larry opened it and glanced at the small bottles and tubes.
“Here. Try some of this on your blisters,” he suggested diffidently, sprinkling the powder on his own. Kennard followed suit, smelling the antiseptic curiously.
“May I see it?” Kennard examined the small bottles and tubes with interested curiosity. “Your people make the damndest things!”
“Some of yours are just as strange,” Larry retorted. “The idea of telepathy still seems weird to me. And teleportation!”
Kennard shrugged. “I suppose so, though of course to me it’s very simple.” He looked at his father; Valdir, looking somewhat less unapproachable now, turned, nodded to his son, fished in the pocket of his jerkin and tossed something to Kennard. Kennard caught the small object—it was shrouded in a small chamois bag and wrapped in silk—and from it, drew a glimmering blue jewel.
“Of course I’m not as good at it all as my father, but still—here, take a look in this.”
Gingerly, Larry touched the blue jewel. It felt faintly warm. He hesitated, remembering how Valdir had probed the mind of the dying Ranger.
“It’s all right,” Kennard said gently, reassuringly. “You don’t think I’d hurt you, do you?”
Abashed at his own fear, Larry looked into the blue jewel. Within the depths, faint colors seemed to move and writhe; suddenly, as he looked up at Kennard, some barrier seemed to drop. The Darkovan boy seemed nearer, and easier to understand. Larry caught, in one quick flash of understanding, a sudden blaze of Kennard’s thoughts, as if the essence of his friend’s personality was made clear to him: Kennard’s intense pride of family, his tremendous sense of responsibility for his work, the fears with which he sometimes struggled, the warmth Kennard felt for his father and his young foster-sister, even—to Larry’s shy embarrassment—the warm friendliness Kennard felt for Larry himself, and the emotion verging on awe with which he regarded Larry’s travels in space and his Terran origin . . .
All this in a brief flash, as the blueness of the jewel blazed; then it faded, the barrier dropped in place again, and Kennard was smiling at him, somewhat tentatively. It occurred to Larry that Kennard now knew as much about him as he knew about Kennard. He didn’t mind—but it took some getting used to!
At least, having had a sample of it, he couldn’t doubt the existence of telepathy!
Kennard shrouded the jewel again. Larry, realizing that the medical kit was still in his other hand, thrust it quickly into his pocket.
He had no way of knowing that the moment of rapport between himself and Kennard was to save both their lives . . .
THEY HAD mounted again, and had ridden for an hour, when they came to a narrow canyon between two forested hills. Between the slopes and the dark trees the place lay in shadow, for the sun was declining; Valdir, riding ahead, slowed his horse to a walk and waited for the others to come up with him.
Kennard’s eyes rested questioningly on his father, and Larry, riding beside him, could follow his thoughts in that way that was still so strange to him: I don’t like this place. Every clump of brushwood could have a dozen bandits behind it. It’s a perfect set-up for an ambush . . . It would be my first fight. The first time I’ve been this close to real danger, not just lolling around the city streets chasing home troublemakers. I wonder if Father knows that I’m afraid.
Larry’s skin prickled, in a strange mixture of excitement and fear. Within the last three days his peaceful life had suddenly plunged into a maelstrom of violence and danger. It was new to him, but, somehow, not unpleasant.
They were halfway down the little valley when Larry heard, through the hoofbeats, a curious sound from deep within the bushes. He stiffened in the saddle; Valdir, alert, saw the move and reined in, looking warily around. Then, from the shelter of the trees came a harsh and raucous cry—and then mounted men were all sweeping down on them.